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Château de Chaville
The Château de Chaville is a small building near the town of Cruzy. It was originally built for the House Bouxieme, however they had to sell it shortly following the construction of the current building due to bankruptcy. Original Building The first building was situated right where the current building is now. It was designed for the House de Bouxieme, and had essentially the same structure as is currently visible, though it had no facade work. This building had 4 towers connected by a very thick wall with 2 small keeps on 2 sides. Because the current building was built directly on the foundations of the old building, it can be inferred that the original building was mostly symmetrical. and that the abnormally thick walls were likely hollowed to allow very secure barracks and living space. This building was completed in 1308. It was known by the local population to be fairly well appointed at the time, especially among the buildings owned by House Bouxieme, but did not last very long. By 1440, the place was a ruin after years of mismanagement, and only one of the keeps was consistently used. The building was then mostly slighted by the end of the century. The only surviving furnishing from this time are a pair of wooden chairs, likely originally used for holding provincial court. Current Structure The new building was built directly on the remains of the old structure, to the point that the central arch to the courtyard is exactly where the gate to the original courtyard once was. That being said, virtually none of the original structure remains visible. The original concept, as brought forth by Serlio, was to replace the 2 ruined keeps with twin buildings, and a simple wall replacement where the two remaining wall sections were. Serlio's design was celebrated for its cost-effectiveness, however Serlio died shortly after finishing the design. The task was then passed to his colleague, Primaticcio. This architect wished to make a defined cour de logis design that was popular in the Empire at the time, however in doing so he had to alter the floor plan. The building was finally redesigned internally to fit this new plan when Primaticcio died of a heart attack, leaving Jean-Pierre Lescot, a Grandelumierian architect. Lescot decided almost immediately to re-institute the original courtyard by closing it off on the fourth side, designing an arch to close off the space. Because the building looked even more quirky and awkward than before, Lescot also decided to add a top floor in order to balance the building a bit more. He was certainly fortunate that the foundation was already prepared for heavier loads, otherwise he'd've been forced to scrap all previous construction. New Owners The House Bouxieme fell on very hard times by 1620's, thus they were forced to sell many of their chateaux at nearly shameful prices. Michel-Dieudonne Le Tellier took notice and decided to purchase Chaville. because of its location near Cruzy.__FORCETOC__ Category:List of Châteaux Category:House Le Tellier